With an ongoing pandemic, the local increase in cases due to the idiocy of returning University students, the west coast fires, the never-ending chaos that is life on earth, anyway, the current craziness at my place of work, and the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg1, I thought I would post a few recent moments that were pleasant, poetic, or at least entertaining.

1. No, really. When cleaning out and moving desks at work, I found things that had fallen beneath the one I'd been using. Acquiring a patina of dust and age: the key to the drawer with the lock that I've been using unlocked, an unopened but now somewhat dated Sansa iPod-type device, and an unopened, inexpensive magnifying glass with a ladybug design.

I know that Dan, with whom I now share an office, has two very young children, so I asked him if either of them would be interested.

"Oh, wow. My youngest is obsessed with magnifying glasses! And his favourite insect is the ladybug. His two obsessions right now are ladybugs and magnifying glasses."

"You're just messing with me now, right?"

"No! He'll love this. Seriously, he's obsessed right now with magnifying glasses and insects, especially ladybugs."

You take the small victories. Kid was apparently wide-eyed when he saw it.


2. While driving down Adelaide, the green part just past the Waltzing Weasel, the Chainsmokers' "Something Just Like This" came on. At that very moment, I passed a young couple hugging and smiling in a field, a perfect screencap of reality. Doo doo doot doo doo doo.


3. My publisher contacted me. An LA-based company with which they've dealt before was asking about film and TV rights to my forthcoming novel.

Okay, hold on. It's not quite what you think. The company in question keeps a database of projects that have adaptation potential, and for which the rights remain available. They provide some identifying information-- I answered a few questions for them-- and production companies and such pay for access. The service permits users to search and find particular kinds of project and the relevant contact information without the bother of looking at every publisher on planet earth. I am certain the authors of many projects they've identified have never heard a peep.

But it's still kinda cool.


4. Singularity Girl and her partner had their second child this week, another boy. Complications resulted in a C-section this time around, but she's recovering nicely.


5. Today, I biked out to the library to pick up two holds. Afterwards, I crossed the street to check out the venerable second-hand book store, seeking, in particular, a certain book by Mark Haddon. Since the store has reopened, the staff have been rotating books in discount bins on the sidewalk. What you might find varies wildly, from day to day.

In the first bin I checked, I found the book. One dollar.

I want something just like this.


6. I crossed back over to retrieve my bike, which I'd locked to the metal cage surrounding an urban tree. Weird loopy bike-lock stations exist downtown, but they're actually awkward to use with some kinds of bike-locks. They also sit very close to the road, and there are no curbs on this stretch of street. People tend to go for the cages first. In fact, an old guy was locking his bike on the other side of the tree.

"I see you want to keep your bike," said he.

"This is easier to use."

"It's also safer." He gestured to the loops. "Those... they're so close to the road. You can lose the front half of your bike. Ask me how I know."

"Did you lose the front half of your bike?"

"I lost my whole damn bike! Car came along." Now, for that to happen, he was either locked in such a way that his bike was sticking out onto the road, or the driver had come up on the sidewalk. Bad break, either way. He narrowed his eyes as I hooked my lock to my bike. "You know why they built them like that, right?"

"No idea," I said.

"A Manila envelope switched hands with someone at City Hall."

Well. The Insidious Hand of Big Stall strikes again!

Doo doo doot doo doo doo.


1. The Trump Party will doubtless want to replace her, but it was the Republican Party in 2016 who declared, on the issue of Merrick Garland, that no new U.S. Supreme Court Justice be discussed until the presidential election was decided. I'm certain they'll follow that precedent, rather than be ludicrously partisan, inconsistent, and hypocritical. Surely Donald Trump and the current incarnation of the Republican Party would never behave in that fashion.

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